Marriage by the door.

Not suicide.

Jolie sighted her sister at the entrance of the living room and the tear that had welled up in her tiny eyes rolled out. Her mother and father were offering pleas, begging her to put down the knife, but Jolie, she wasn't listening. At all.

"Gwen!" Jolie called, squeezing her face like a baby as the tears kept on pouring out. "I don't worth this life anymore. I think it's time for me to leave already. Or... what do you think?" she asked, waiting to hear the soothing voice of her sister.

Here was an unstable twenty-one year old girl who had a six months pregnancy attached to her frail slim body. She was a poor girl who was going through the pains of parental condemnation and the sad truth that the father of her child had denied his responsibility to her pregnancy and ran off.

Gwen had no idea what to say, she just wanted to pull her sister in and hold her in a tight hug.

"You're right, we all don't worth life anymore. We deserve to be punished for all our sins...but God has decided to let us go, he has decided to let his mercy speak and give us the chance to right our wrongs. And so, we all have a second chance, Jolie..." Her voice was bold and strong, she did not know where those words came from. She didn't believe she could say anything that could make sense especially in this kind of state.

Jolie sniffed

"A chance?" She swallowed her spit and waited some seconds to digest the words. "Do I really deserve another chance? Because as far as I can remember, all I've brought to this family is shame, disgrace, worry..." Jolie lamented and her mother rushed in right there.

"No Jolie, my world will never be the same without you! You're a source of joy to us" Hannah managed to speak in between her tears. Gwen could not understand why her father just kept quiet and had this guilty look on his face. There was a lot she had to know.

"It's hard to believe that, Mum" Jolie said

"Yeah, truth is always the one that's hard to believe, I mean, lies; we believe them all the time. But I promise you that if you give yourself another chance, your life will be the brightest it has ever been since you were born. We will all be proud of you. I promise you this, Julianna"  Gwen said, her voice still strong and firm.

She held out her hand and pointed her little finger at her sister.

"Pinky promise..."

Jolie paused. In a way, she could find a strand of hope in Gwen's words. She could trust her sister and believe that her promise would come to be. She dropped her hand to her knee still holding on to the silver knife.

She raised her other hand and slowly locked her little finger with her sister's. A little smile curved up her lip and she relished that moment of hope. Her smile soon turned into a frown when she felt a sharp sting deep in her stomach.

"Arrgh" She screamed and threw the knife to the floor. Gwenevere ran towards her right in time to save her from crashing to the hard wooden floor. She sat on the floor and let her sister's back fall on her leg. She could still manage to keep her cool, until she saw...blood.

***

The heel of his black shiny shoe clicked against the white flawless tiles. He adjusted his blue tie on his neck and loosened it a little; he figured the conversation with the Queen would be a long one.

He knocked on the huge gold plattered door and for a second he worried that his face had grown a little lean. His mother would definitely make that a subject of worry and discussion. Only around his mother, he let himself feel worthy of care.

He made a mental note of the list of food his mother would insist to be included in his daily meal, and Mario would make sure he wasn't slack in chunking them down.

"Prince Williams is granted permission to step into the Queen's chambers." A lady's voice sang out and the door came open immediately. Mario found a good spot where he could stand and wait for the Prince.

Williams glanced at the white slim woman by the door and walked into the room. The first thing that welcomed him was the warm air in and the fresh smell of flowers that lingered around.

He continued to pace into his room till he went through another door again that really housed his mother. He pushed open the door and saw a woman sitting by a table, head bowed down to a set of papers that was evenly distributed in the table.

She raised her head slowly and brought her hand which was about picking up a pen to a stop. She was shocked. Who was this man standing in front of her?

Her eyes were bright cobalt blue, a striking point of resemblance between her and her son. Her long blonde hair was let down to spread apart and play on her shoulders. On both sides of her cheeks were smile marks that told a person she was a guru at smiling. They had now begun to look like wrinkles, but she had managed to hide them well under powder. Her hands were slim and skinny, but with strong bones that could do heavy duty work pretty well.

One of those two hands was suspended few inches above the table as she was in a serious business analyzing the man before her. In her eyes, his cheek had refused to hide the rawness of his chiseled cheek bone well enough. He must have lost some pounds during his recent solitude. She sighed, what could she do?

Wiliiams took a bow as he approached his mother and she could get a better view of his dull eyes. She was ready to pop a thousand questions at him. Have you had breakfast? Do you feel sick? Should I make you porridge soup? This man needed the care of a mother.

"Good morning, mother." Williams spoke.

She managed to drop her hands and get out of her chair. She walked towards him and placed her hands on both his shoulders.

"Prince Williams..." she called and Williams heart went weak. She pulled him into a gentle hug and let him stay for a while. That gesture was enough communication for their hearts, it said words that could not be mouthed or pronounced with the lips. It was a mother and son thingnie.

As much as Williams wanted to go for his meeting, the didn't want to raise his head from the warm shoulder of his mother, they in some way took away his worries for a while. She let go of him and led him to a cream couch that was positioned against the wall of the room.

"I was about leaving when I was told you wanted to see me." Williams said, trying to hide his emotions, he still had this mildly cold look in his face.

"Yes." She replied. Her voice sharp and smooth. "Two days ago, I and your father spoke...about you, about the country, and we agreed that it is at this stage of a prince's life that he ties a knot with a lioness and he is regarded the leader of the pride"

His mother was speaking the language of her tradition and he understood her just well. However, it was a conversation he dreaded.

His eyebrow went up and he was about to protest, but he lest his mother finish what she had to say.

"You know that according to the traditions and constitution in Greenland, once a Prince is about to turn 26, he needs to get engaged to a princess. And you know that the woman he gets married to is chosen by his ancestors, your grandfathers." She took a pause for the next thing she was about to say. "Concerning all of this, there is a great development."

Here, Williams wanted to tell his mother to hold the conversation and ask if she could possibly postpone it, maybe for the next five to seven months. Then he would be in his right mind, hopefully, to have this conversation.

"Mother. I'm sorry to sound snubbish but what you're trying to say is that you have chosen a wife for me and I have to meet her real soon. Right?" Williams asked hoping silently to hear a no.

Elena paused and for a second wondered how Williams had already processed all of what she was about to say. She nodded her head

"Precisely."

Williams sat up and brought his fingers together like he wanted to take hold of some salt.

"Is there anyway -possibly- that we could not have this discussion...for a period of time...say like a year?"

Elena narrowed her eyes. What was he making such request? She  tried finding an answer for him, if possibly, like he had said, they would not have this conversation.

"No." she spoke

Williams nodded his head in surrender. There was no debating, if his mother said 'no' like that, then it was something he really could not avoid, something above her control.

He nodded again.

"Lets get to business then" Williams patted his laps. He would listen to what she had to say, then find a way to brainwash himself afterwards.